Low Carb Makeover Recipes – Classic Holiday Side Dishes

One of the best aspects of our traditional holiday meals is the array of side dishes to enjoy. The offer color, taste, variety, and relief from what can become the boredom of everyday eating. Most of our daily meals are simple, even a little bit dull. Many families dine on pizza and fried chicken as part of their fast food lifestyle. For those who take the trouble to cook, most of the time they will stick to meat and potatoes without branching out into interesting side dishes. Once you are on a low carb diet, however, the pizza, pasta and potatoes will have to go. Luckily, there are a number of low carb substitutions for these family favorites. Combine this with all new side dishes and you will soon find that eating low carb does not have to be dull or restrictive. Adding a range of side dishes at the holidays can add color, taste and fiber, to make for a more satisfying and filling meal. Pizza can be made using soy flour, almond meal or polenta. Use this as an appetizer or light meal at the holidays when the kids are home from school and hungry all the time. Sides that will go well include a leafy green salad, broccoli, and diced and cooked red and green peppers. Pasta can be made from spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles created with a spiral peeler. Use a regular peeler to create thin low carb ÔlasagnaÕ noodles. You can also use think slices of eggplant for noodle substitutes. All of these dishes will work well as appetizers, main courses or satisfying side dishes. For mock fried chicken, skip the wheat flour and use crushed almonds or pecans if no one is allergic, or 1 cup of crushed natural corn flakes to which no sugar has been added. Corn is gluten free and low in net carbs because it is so hard to digest. When cooking low carb, remember to divide the net carbs per serving by the number of servings you create. Thirty carbs may sound like a lot for the corn flakes, but comes out to less than 8 carbs per serving if you divide your dish into 4 portions. Poultry such as chicken and turkey are very versatile, Chances are you will have at least one of these at the holidays. Great low carb side dishes to accompany any poultry include mock mashed potatoes made with cauliflower, a stir fry made with Chinese bok choy and celery, or a colorful spinach salad with radishes. Use this handy list of the carb counts for 40 popular fruits and vegetables to choose the best ones for you depending on which phase of your low carb diet you are on, such as Atkins Phase 1: Induction. Look for low carb seasonal favorites to go with your turkey, such as sweet potato without all the sugar and marshmallows, green bean casserole made from scratch, not with starchy cream of mushroom soup, and cranberry sauce made with fresh cranberries and a low carb, all natural sweetener like stevia. Go beyond the usual meat and potatoes and other starchy foods you and your family have come to rely on as standard. Branch out with new low carb side dishes to take your meals to a whole new level of fresh tasty low carb food. Expand your knowledge of low carb sides for any occasion, including the holidays, and see how easy the low carb lifestyle can be.